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Cheerleaders
'' Cheerleaders ''is the twenty-first book in the Middle School series. It tells the story of Gail and Leah trying out for the eighth grade cheerleading squad and Leah attracting the attention of the school flirt, William. Gail wants Leah to try out for the cheerleading squad with her. Leah goes along with her friend, but she thinks the whole idea is ridiculous. Surprisingly, Leah makes the squad and meets a very cute boy in the process. But Gail doesn't, and becomes jealous of her friend and concerned that the school cutie William is not what he seems. Will Gail be able to get over her jealousy, and will Leah be able to realize that William is bad news? Summary On a Monday morning, Gail attends Coach Rodriguez's health class. She is initially bored of the class (having taken health twice before) but she snaps to attention when the coach assigns the class to participate and write a paper on an athletic activity of the students' choice. As Gail thinks about what to write her paper on, Coach Bevan walks into the room and asks for all the girls in Coach Rodriguez's class to come to her classroom, which is next door. In Coach Bevan's classroom, which is full of eighth grade girls, the coach announces that tryouts for the eighth grade cheerleading squad are coming up. Gail, who is excited about this announcement, gushes about it to her friend and classmate, Alyson. The girls decide to tell their friends who are not in the class about the tryouts. During lunch time, Gail tells her friends about the tryouts, but none of them are very interested. Gail decides to ask Leah, who she assumes is interested by the news, if she wants to try out for the squad with her. Unfortunately, Leah is shocked and appalled that she had asked her. Gail tries to convince Leah that cheerleading is not bad and will not involve a lot of athletic activity, something Leah is worried about. Leah reluctantly decides to try out with Gail, but she is not happy about it. Later in the school day, Leah passes by the bulletin board, where a sign-up sheet for the cheerleading tryouts is tacked up. Leah walks up to the board and silently debates whether or not she should sign her name on the sheet. As she turns to leave the board, she turns and almost runs into a group of boys; one of them is William Frost, one of the most popular boys in the school. William tells Leah that she should try out for the squad because she has potential. Leah is taken aback by his words, but is still unsure about whether the tryouts are a good idea. She finally decides to go through with it when she realizes that she needs to give it a fair chance. For the next two weeks, Gail and Leah work vigorously to practice for the tryouts. In order to learn stunts, they look to Arabella and her friend from gymnastics, Susan, to teach them. Gail can barely keep her legs up during the stunts, while Leah is scared to finish the stunt out of fear of hurting herself. On a weeknight, Leah and Gail meet up at the community center gym to practice their cheers. Leah has a bad attitude during practice, which annoys Gail. The girls decide to take a break. Gail admits that making the cheerleading squad is important to her because she wants to be involved in an extracurricular activity before she graduates. Leah reassures her that she is going to make it, and Gail tells her that they will make the squad together. Gail mentions that the squad will be cheering during the boys' basketball games, and at the mention of boys, Leah's interest in being part of the squad increases. The girls decide to start practicing again, and this time, Leah starts putting more effort in her cheers, even though she doubts that she is going to make the squad. On the day of the tryouts, Leah and Gail are confident that they are going to make it, but once Leah notices the number of girls wanting to try out, she loses confidence and becomes sour about the tryouts. The girls sit in the bleachers with Alyson and two of their classmates from health, Tammy and Katherine. Soon, the tryouts begin. After Coach Bevan and Coach Edwin give a short speech, the girls are introduced to their cheerleading coach, Adrianne Rosen, who is herself a former cheerleader. She, along with Coach Edwin and Coach Bevan are in charge of choosing the girls who will make the squad. Since there are many girls trying out, Adrianne has the girls come down and pick a number out of a hat at random. Gail picks the number four, while Leah receives the number forty. After everyone receives a number, tryouts begin. The first person who tries out is Nadia Ellis, a girl from Gail's math class. Nadia is very good, and many of the girls believe that she will make the squad. The next girl, Sarah Laufer, is not very good. The third girl, Shavonne Williams, is exceptionally good; she earns the approval of the judges but she earns the jealous of the other girls, who are afraid that they won't be able to compete with her. Gail goes next; her routine doesn't include any stunts, but she hopes that she will make the squad because of her stage prescence. Leah eventually performs. Her tryout is not very good, but she doesn't seem to care. Eventually, the tryouts come to an end. The girls are excited but nervous about the results. The following Monday, the results are revealed. Alyson, Tammy, Katherine, Shavonne, and Nadia are some of the girls who make the squad, but to everyone's surprise, Leah makes it, too. Gail doesn't make it and tries to talk to Adrianne about it. Adrianne tells her that she wasn't picked because she didn't attempt any stunts and tells her that she needs more practice. Gail tries to be happy that Leah made it, but she is angry that she had put in more work and she didn't make the squad. Leah is perplexed by the results. She asks Adrianne why she made the squad, and Adrianne tells her that although her tryout wasn't great, she has the potential to be a great cheerleader. Leah considers quitting, even though Alyson, Tammy, and Katherine try to convince her not to. Before school starts, Leah runs into Alex and Ellie and tells them about the results. They are happy for her, but tell her that if she feels like she doesn't belong on the squad, she should try to quit. The girls go their separate ways when the bell for homeroom rings. As Leah walks to her homeroom class, William Frost catches up with her and they decide to walk to their homeroom classes together. Leah tells him that she made the squad, and William congratulates and compliments her. It appears that Leah and William are forming a connection, but so far, Leah wants to think of William as a friend. During homeroom, Leah is congratulated by her classmates for making the squad. After homeroom, Leah decides to catch up with Gail, but Gail doesn't seem interested in talking to her. She tells Gail about her encounter with William, but Gail accuses her of only trying out for the squad in order to see William and storms off. On Monday, Leah attends the first cheerleading practice. There, Adrianne gives a lengthy speech about teamwork, which bores Leah, but also talks about how athleticism is important, which worries her. Adrianne assigns roles to the girls, and assigns Shavonne, Leah, and another girl named Heather to be flyers. Adrianne decides to go to the copier room to print out papers for the girls and leaves Shavonne in charge of teaching the girls some basic cheers. Before the girls begin cheering, Shavonne forces Leah to stand in the back row because she feels like Leah is not a "real cheerleader". She leads the girls in a complicated routine that includes stepping, and to Leah's dismay, everyone except for her seems to be good at it. When the girls are receiving their drink bottles, Shavonne confesses to Leah that she believes that she isn't good enough to be on the team, shattering Leah's confidence. Adrianne comes back into the room to pass out the cheerleading schedule for the semester. The schedule is very intense, and this overwhelms Leah. The girls are also given a picture showing what the cheer uniforms look like. At the end of practice, the girls talk about the upcoming basketball season. At first Leah is bored by the conversation, but when William Frost is brought up, she begins to pay attention. She now has a new motivation to cheer. Gail's feelings about cheerleading and school become really negative after being rejected. She is jealous and hurt, which isn't helped by Alyson, Tammy, and Katherine bringing up details about the squad every second. The girls confess to Gail that Leah isn't the best cheerleader, but she's trying. They also bring up Leah's developing relationship with William, which Gail doesn't approve of; Gail thinks that William is mean-spirited, arrogant, and a player. One late morning, Ellie invites Leah and Gail to a dance committee meeting to talk about the Autumn Dance, which is coming up. Gail agrees to go, but Leah declines, saying that she is going on a Starbucks date with William. She decides to eat lunch with William instead of with her friends that day, and Gail and her friends discuss it. They worry that Leah will be heartbroken because she is not as popular as William. Maryann tells a story about one of her classmates who had dated William and had a bad experience with him, confirming Gail's suspicions of William being a player. Jessie mentions that William used to go out with Clarissa Simpson, who wants to get back together with him. After lunch, Gail explains her friends' warnings to Leah, but Leah gets defensive and accuses Gail of being unsupportive of everything she's done because of her jealousy. They get in an argument, and Gail tells Leah that she only made the squad because Adrianne felt sorry for her. Leah taunts Gail for not making it on the squad at all before walking away. After school, Leah heads to Starbucks for her date with Wiliam. When she arrives, she sees that Clarissa is sitting at a table with William. When she tells Clarissa that she is on a date with William, Clarissa angrily storms away and sits at a table where the other Popular Sensations are sitting. William buys coffee and desserts for himself and Leah. During their date, Leah and William talk about school, the Autumn Dance, cheerleading, and basketball. Leah finds herself becoming bored when William talks about basketball, but she pretends to stay interested. Leah overhears Clarissa and the Popular Sensations laughing hysterically behind her, but William tells her to ignore them. Leah decides to ask William if the rumors about him and Clarissa are true. William explains that he indeed used to date Clarissa, but he is over her and Clarissa won't let it go. He implies that he has developed feelings for Leah. Leah is happy that William is interested in her and hopes that they can develop their relationship. The next day at school, Leah is on cloud nine after her date with William. However, when she walks into the eighth grade hallway, she sees William and Clarissa talking. Leah assumes that William is finally telling Clarissa off once and for all, but to Leah's shock, they begin kissing. Nearby, she sees Gail, Chloe, and Arabella at their lockers and decides to talk to them about her dilemma. However, Gail is chilly towards Leah and storms away, and the other girls follow her. Before homeroom starts, she confronts William about what she had saw, and William convinces her that Clarissa kissed him first and he had pushed her away. Leah believes him and decides to invite him and his friends to an outing with her and the cheerleaders. Unfortunately, William tells her that he and his friends had already made plans with the Popular Sensations. Clarissa walks up to them and mentions that she and William has plans after one of the basketball games, and William does nothing to defer this. During lunch, Leah notices that Charlotte and Holly, two of the cheerleaders who sat with her, William, and his friends, are sitting at another table; the girls explained that they had gotten bored of the boys' sports talk. Leah sees William sitting at the Popular Sensations' table and confronts him. To her surprise, William begins acting very douchey. When Leah asks him why he is acting differently, William accuses her of being needy and desperate and tells her that she's not a good cheerleader. Many people around them hear this conversation, and Leah is humiliated. She walks out of the room, into the bathroom, and cries. The day of the first home basketball game arrives. The majority of the student body shows up to the game, and Leah's friends and family show up to see her cheer and perform a halftime routine. During the game, Leah's friends congratulate her, but Gail spends the time mostly talking to her boyfriend, Blake, and scowling at Leah. For the first two quarters of the game, the cheerleaders pump up the crowd, but because Leah is depressed, her cheering skills are lackluster. This angers Shavonne, who calls all the girls to a huddle and humiliates Leah by bashing her cheering skills. Leah snaps and gets into a physical altercation with Shavonne, but this causes Adrianne to pull her to the sidelines for the rest of the first half of the game. Soon, it is halftime, which means that the band and the cheerleading squad have to perform in front of the crowd. The basketball team leaves the room to take a water break while the band is performing, but they return when it is time for the cheerleaders to perform. Leah stays frozen in her seat when she sees William and Clarissa flaunting their relationship in front of her, but the cheerleaders force her to walk to the front of the room. The girls perform a seven-minute routine with a finale where the flyers stand on the bases' shoulders. As Leah is standing on Alyson's shoulders, she looks into the crowd and makes eye contact with Gail, who is scowling at her. Leah loses her balance and falls forward, knocking over Katherine, who was crouching on the ground below her. The crowd reacts very negatively towards this and begin booing the squad and taunting Leah. Leah notices that William is laughing hysterically, and overwhelmed by everything, she bursts into tears. Most of the cheerleaders are concerned about Leah, but Shavonne glares at her with a disapproving look. Leah's mom, who had climbed out of the bleachers, asks if she is okay, but Leah gets tired of the chaos and crowd and shouts that she's quitting the squad before running out of the gym. She runs to the eighth grade hallway in tears. Gail goes to the eighth grade hallway to see if Leah is okay. Things are awkward between them at first, but Leah apologizes to Gail about her rude comments and admits that she isn't cut out for cheerleading. Gail says that she is over cheerleading and has decided to focus on the newspaper club, which she is a part of; nevertheless, she apologizes for acting cold and unsupportive towards Leah. She also convinces Leah not to quit the cheerleading squad. Leah decides to follow Gail's advice, but at the moment, she doesn't want to cheer for the rest of the game. She asks Gail if she wants to take her place on the squad for the rest of the game, and Gail agrees to the plan. They decide to switch clothes before they walk back to the gym. There, Leah and Gail ask Adrianne and the cheerleaders if Gail can cheer for the rest of the game. Adrianne and Shavonne are skeptical at first, but eventually, they come around and allow Gail to cheer. Leah decides to sit in the bleachers and watch the rest of the game with her friends. She is happy to see Gail live out her goal of becoming a cheerleader, and she begins to feel less sad about William. William scores the winning basket and Lakewood wins the game, but Leah finds herself cheering for Gail rather than the basketball players. Though Leah's cheerleading experience had had its ups-and-downs, she is ultimately content with it. Characters (in order of appearance) *Gail Edwards *Coach Rodriguez *Coach Bevan *Alyson Wallace *Arabella Wilson *Chloe Winters *Jessie Sanchez *Alex Sanders *Daphne Carson *Leah Harrison *William Frost *Susan Duncan *Katherine Woodburn *Tammy Haggert *Coach Edwin *Adrianne Rosen *Ellie Jackson *Shavonne Williams *Miranda Martinez *Holly Bauer *Maryann Chang *Clarissa Simpson *Charlotte Liu *Gabby Evans *Stacy Hood *Principal Watson *Maria Vargas *Kelly Harrison Trivia *This book was rewritten four times. First edition, 2008. Fourth edition, October 2016. *This story was based on a book called "The Accidental Cheerleader" by Mimi McCoy and the "Bring it On" movie starring Hayden Panettiere and Solange Knowles. Category:Stories